


Secrets and New Beginnings

by LeDiz



Series: The 48: Pokemon [12]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Series: XY, Team Rocket family, episode coda, giving up on love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 16:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8760568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: For all that she dreams of fame and fortune, Jessie knows she could have been happy to settle down as a small town doctor's wife. It didn't happen, but... it could have.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Trufax: Like all flowers, daisies have a lot of different meanings. I highly doubt the pokemon anime was really referencing any of them, and if they were, they were probably going for the old Victorian 'farewell', rather than any of the more modern meanings. But it works no matter which way you cut it really.

“We did it!” Bonnie cried, throwing Dedenne up in the air.

“Hmph. Of course we did,” James replied, flicking his hair back.

“Exactly!” agreed Jessie. “It takes more than one pathetic pokemon poacher to beat the prodigious power of Team Rocket.”

“Yeah!” And with that, Meowth turned on the twerps, claws at the ready. “And it takes way more than a trio of twerps to –”

“Aw, knock it off,” Ash snapped, immediately ruining the threat with his annoyed glance. “We just helped rescue you. Give it a break, would ya?”

“Yeah!” cried Serena. “You could at least say thank you!”

Wobbuffet fidgeted, tapping its arms together in slight shame for Team Rocket as a whole. “Wobbuffet…”

The rest of them exchanged glances, then embarrassed grins, giving up any attempt at being threatening. It had been a long and emotional day, after all. Getting separated, Jessie thinking she’d found love in a charming village doctor, James and Meowth planning to let her go and live her life, only for her and Wobbuffet to choose their friends over any peaceful future they could have had. None of them really had it in them to fight the twerps right now.

“Why are you here anyway, Jessie?” Bonnie asked curiously. “I thought you were gonna get married to that nice pokemon doctor man!”

“Yeah, what gives?” asked James. “And you, Wobbuffet! You could have had a family!”

“Wo- wobbuffet…” it said, and flung its arms around Jessie, who raised a dramatic hand to her forehead and looked off into the distance.

“Let us not speak of it! Unrequited love is such a tragedy it can only be properly understood through opera, or theatre! I’ll –”

“We can go without hearing about it then,” Bonnie deadpanned, and Jessie glared down at her but didn’t bother responding otherwise.

“Did he reject you?” Serena asked quietly, and both James and Meowth gasped, horrified, even as Jessie turned a blank look on the girl.

A moment passed as she considered how best to respond. On the one hand, further dramatics were _always_ called for. And it was insulting that she would ever assume such a thing! As if any man could reject her, _Jessie_ , if she had really tried! She was the most beautiful, the most charming, the most wonderful young woman in the world! Any man would be thrilled to kiss her toes!

“Do you want us to tell him anything?”

She blinked, turning her attention to the main twerp. Ash was just standing at the back of the group, holding the straps of his backpack as he watched it all play out. There was nothing in his expression – no judgement, no pity or concern. He was just offering to play messenger if she wanted it, no strings attached.

“You mean tell the doctor something? Like what?” Serena asked, but Ash didn’t explain, just waiting for Jessie’s answer.

She hesitated another moment, then turned her head away with a soft smile. She couldn’t be surprised; not really. They’d played this scene before.

“Let me just put something together,” she said, and headed off into the woods.

“Ash, what –”

“It’s okay, I don’t think she’ll take long.”

Jessie ignored the exchange, knowing full well that James, Meowth, Wobbuffet and Pumpkaboo were following her, but that the twerp would wait where he was. She continued walking until she found what she was looking for – a small patch of daisies, perfect and white. Weeds, really. But she remembered from somewhere that they were a symbol for new beginnings and secrets. They seemed appropriate.

“You could have been happy,” James said quietly, as she began gathering them up. “You could have found love.”

“I already have love,” she said without looking around at him. “The love of my friends.”

“Aw, Jessie!” Meowth cried. “You crazy lug!”

She didn’t bother responding to that, finishing her bouquet in silence. She stood up and led the way back to the twerps, where she handed it to the smallest one without a word.

“Flowers?” she asked, staring up at her.

“For the doctor,” the twerpette realised. “To say goodbye. That’s so sweet.”

“Yeah,” Ash agreed, and then met Jessie’s gaze. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

And he was, she knew. The twerp was always hopeful that one day, things would change. One day, she would find her happy ending, and James would settle down, and Meowth would realise he didn’t need to be Giovanni’s favourite pokemon. And as soon as that day came, the twerp would probably forgive them for everything.

It just wasn’t today.

“Hmph! As if it could compare to what I already have!” she said, turning away with her hands on her hips. “And don’t think for a second that just because we beat up that poacher for you that this means anything! The next time we see you, we’ll capture Pikachu and all the rest of your pokemon!”

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Ash said wearily, and a flash of movement from the corner of her eye made her look around in time to see him quietly gather up a handful of the daisies from Bonnie’s arms and hold them out for Jessie to take. He held her gaze as he said, “Same old, same old.”

She hesitated, unable to move under that look. She’d seen it before, of course, but never pointed at her. It was usually focussed on damaged pokemon, or those pathetic trainers that needed someone to hold their hand just to get through a battle. The idea of him looking at _her_ with those eyes...! And the flowers… did he know what he was asking her to take?

Probably not, she told herself, and snatched them out of his hands just to make him stop staring. Then she turned and began striding off down the road. “Come on James, Meowth! It’s almost sundown and I am not fixing that balloon in the dark again!”

“Right behind ya, Jess!” Meowth cried, and James hurried up alongside.

“Sure! It’s this way.”

They marched off, but Jessie couldn’t help looking down at the flowers in her hands, and then peeking back over her shoulder. The twerp was just turning away to follow his friends in walking back to the village, but she knew he’d been watching her.

Just like she kept looking at the flowers, even after they had the balloon up and coasting over the landscape. She kept thinking of the doctor, and dreaming of how things could have been if he hadn’t already had that girl. If she’d just had time… the time to make him love her…

But that would mean giving up Team Rocket. Their fabulous life of crime. Her dreams of fame and fortune. Chasing that crazy twerp and his overpowered rodent all over the world. Wobbuffet. Meowth. James.

She gave the flowers one last, long look.

Secrets and new beginnings, huh?

She smiled and threw them away.

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 is a collection of unfinished and/or pointless fics saved to my hard drive, now posted to Ao3 for people's interest or in case they want to adopt them.
> 
> I have... technically got a couple more for this series, but I'm probably not going to post them. One because I actually don't like it that much (I feel like it would be better served with a longer multi-chaptered version but I'm so not going to write that), and the other because if the anime plays out at all like Pokémon Sun and Moon, I think Lusamine will play that villain waaay better. Granted, that's three years off and we have at least a full season of wacky hijinks before we get any hints of complex story, but either way. So for now, this may be it. Onwards to new beginnings.


End file.
